Union calls for social provisions to be included in NAMA legislation

SIPTU General President Jack O’Connor has called for the primary National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) legislation to include social provisions to provide housing schools, health centres, sports and other community facilities.
He has pledged that SIPTU will campaign for such provisions in the Bill to ensure that there is a social dividend from the huge risk being undertaken by the taxpayer.
“It now seems almost certain that the NAMA proposition to socialise debts recklessly accumulated by those at the top of the banking system will be pushed through the Oireachtas.”
He said this is a direct consequence of the Government decision to extend state guarantees to a number of institutions which turned out to be little more than money clubs for developers.
“If this proposition cannot be blocked the very least we should insist on is a social dividend, given the enormous risks we are all taking on board.
“NAMA will become the biggest property-owning institution in the world. Consequently, there will be no excuse for leaving communities without adequate schools, health centres, sports and other essential facilities.
“Equally, as NAMA will own more housing stock than it will ever need, there will be no excuse for local authority waiting lists, or for young people to take on exorbitant mortgages due to the absence of affordable housing. There will be no justification at all, if there ever was any, for the co-location hospital scam.”

Trade union rep refuses to sign tax report

THE trade union representative on the Dublin Government’s Commission on Taxation has refused to sign off on the report presented to the commission’s members for their approval last week.
The trade union representative, SIPTU Vice-President Brendan Hayes, says the document is not “sufficiently redistributive of tax revenues”.
It is believed that the report recommends that income taxes be reduced if new levies such as carbon tax and property tax are introduced and will form a key part of the Government’s Budget strategy in the autumn. Hayes’s moves indicates a growing distance between trade unions and the Government.

Community backs Dublin Port workers

A MARCH was held last week by the Dublin Port Workers’ Group in support of colleagues in dispute with British company Peel Ports at the Marine Terminal in Dublin Port.
Over 300 people from the communities of East Wall, Irishtown and Ringsend from both sides of the River Liffey joined together to hold a protest at the Marine Terminal where 42 SIPTU members have been picketing for over a month over the company’s refusal to negotiate with the union and to enforce pay cuts and redundancies.